Narrative comprehension and its associations with gender and nonverbal cognitive skills in monolingual and bilingual German preschoolers

Bilingual exposure (BE) and socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with children’s development, but their specific and unique effects are still unclear. This study analyzed the influence of these environmental factors on a set of cognitive and linguistic abilities in preschoolers to disentangle their effects. One hundred-eleven Italian-speaking preschool children (mean age = 61 months; SD = 6.8) growing in a monolingual or multilingual context completed an assessment of cognitive (theory of mind, inhibition, attention shifting and working memory) and linguistic abilities (vocabulary, grammar, narrative comprehension, lexical access). The results of hierarchical regressions with predictors variation in BE (both Length and Daily exposure) and SES on each ability, shown a specific contribution of variation in SES, after controlling for BE, in vocabulary, grammar, and working memory (WM), and a specific contribution of variation in BE, over and above effect of SES, in vocabulary, narrative comprehension and WM. In addition, we found an interaction between these factors in predicting the performance of the theory of mind task (ToM). To conclude, variations in BE and SES are related independently to individual differences in linguistic and cognitive skills of children in preschool.

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Direct and Indirect Pathways of Variation in Length of Exposure to the Majority Language, Cognitive and Language Skills in Preschoolers’ Listening Narrative Comprehension

Children ◽

10.3390/children8080636 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (8) ◽

pp. 636

Author(s):

Raffaele Dicataldo ◽

Maja Roch

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Skills ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Language Skills ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Receptive Vocabulary ◽

Narrative Comprehension ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Story Structure ◽

Syntactic Knowledge ◽

Multicomponent Model

Listening narrative comprehension, according to the theoretical framework of the multicomponent model for comprehension, involves numerous skills that interact dynamically between each other and have the potential to give rise to individual differences in comprehension. The purpose of the current work was to define a comprehensive and complete multicomponent model of listening narrative comprehension in preschool age. We investigated how variation in Length of Exposure to majority Language (i.e., how long children have been exposed to the Italian language), lower-order cognitive (WM, inhibitory control, attention shifting), language skills (receptive vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, rapid naming), and higher-order cognitive skills (inferences, TOM, knowledge of story-structure) are related to listening narrative comprehension in Italian of 111 preschool children (Mage = 61 months; SD = 6.8) growing in a monolingual or multilingual context. Structural equation modeling results showed that the model explained 60% variance in listening narrative comprehension in Italian of children aged four to six and predicted the outcome both through direct and mediated paths, coherently with the multicomponent model of comprehension.

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Go Climb a Tree (to Improve Cognitive Skills)

ASHA Leader ◽

10.1044/leader.rib2.20102015.16 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 (10) ◽

pp. 16-16

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Skills

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After Dismissal: Examining the Language, Literacy, and Cognitive Skills of Children With Remediated Speech Sound Disorders

Perspectives on School-Based Issues ◽

10.1044/sbi16.2.50 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 50-59 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Kelly Farquharson

Keyword(s):

Public Schools ◽

Speech Production ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Speech Sound Disorders ◽

Academic Difficulties ◽

The Public ◽

Age Appropriate ◽

Language Literacy

Speech sound disorders are a complex and often persistent disorder in young children. For many children, therapy results in successful remediation of the errored productions as well as age-appropriate literacy and academic progress. However, for some children, while they may attain age-appropriate speech production skills, they later have academic difficulties. For SLPs in the public schools, these children present as challenging in terms of both continuing treatment as well as in terms of caseload management. What happens after dismissal? Have these children truly acquired adequate speech production skills? Do they have lingering language, literacy, and cognitive deficits? The purpose of this article is to describe the language, literacy, and cognitive features of a small group of children with remediated speech sound disorders compared to their typically developing peers.

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Re-conceptualizing Machiavellianism and Social-Cognitive Skills

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000340 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

William Hart ◽

Christopher J. Breeden ◽

Charlotte Kinrade

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Skills ◽

Person Perception ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Cognitive Skill ◽

Prediction Skill ◽

Current Evidence ◽

College Sample ◽

Social Prediction

Abstract. Machiavellianism is presumed to encompass advanced social-cognitive skill, but research has generally suggested that Machiavellian individuals are rather deficient in social-cognitive skill. However, previous research on the matter has been limited to measures of (a) Machiavellianism that are unidimensional and saturated with both antagonism and disinhibition and measures (b) only one type of social-cognitive skill. Using a large college sample ( N = 461), we examined how various dimensions of Machiavellianism relate to two types of social-cognitive skill: person-perception skill and general social prediction skill. Consistent with some prior theorizing, the planful dimension of Machiavellianism was positively related to both person-perception and general social prediction skills; antagonistic dimensions of Machiavellianism were negatively related to both skills; either agentic or cynical dimensions of Machiavellianism were generally unrelated to both skills. Overall, the current evidence suggests a complicated relationship between Machiavellianism and social-cognitive skill because Machiavellianism encompasses features that blend deficiency, proficiency, and average levels of social-cognitive skills.

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